The nurse, the prat and the hospital in the middle of nowhere
by yogini
Summary: Merlin Emrys is a med school student who has taken a leave of absence to work at a field hospital for a year before going back to school for his final year. Arthur Pendragon is a famous, slightly arrogant, singer on holiday with his friends. When he decides to go wild and crazy on an excursion he ends up getting hurt and in Merlin's care.


_Author's note:_  
_Basically, this was supposed to be more serious but as I kept writing, Arthur just got hornier and I kind of went with it. Don't really know how it happened but enjoy^^_

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from BBC to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

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**The nurse, the prat and the hospital in the middle of nowhere**

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"Shit!"  
"Arthur, you all right there mate?"  
"It looks pretty bad, maybe he should see a doctor?" The voices of his friends seemed to come from far away and he was too tired to answer and his shoulder ached uncomfortably. If they could just be quiet for a minute he could go to sleep and…  
"Bloody hell, Pendragon, wake up!" Gwaine's voice and an accompanying slap across his face startled him awake.  
"What the hell was that for?" he muttered angrily.  
"You might have a concussion, mate, can't let you sleep."

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur to Arthur but he seemed to remember being lifted into a car and Gwaine talking incessantly to keep him awake. But then again, Gwaine always talked incessantly so maybe he was just being himself after all. He also remembered Leon swearing at someone over the phone and yelling at the cabbie for not driving faster. Then the car stopped and he was carried into a house, laid on a bed and some annoying person kept waking him up every now and then, shining a flashlight into his eyes.

When he came around properly it was daylight outside and the room he was in seemed to be an office of some kind. He started to move around a little on the bed and winced as pain flared through his shoulder. He looked down to find that it had been bandaged.  
"Good morning." The voice made him jump and he groaned when his head jostled. He felt like he had a really bad hang-over.  
"Careful there," the voice continued, slightly amused, and a man stepped into the room. "How are you feeling?"  
"Like shit" was the honest-to-god answer and Arthur said as much. The man just laughed.  
"I can imagine that." Uninvited, he sat down on the narrow bed and looked Arthur over. His inquiring gaze made Arthur uneasy so he asked:  
"Who are you?"  
"Oh sorry," the man said a little surprised, "I thought you remembered from yesterday. I'm Merlin." He offered Arthur his hand with a friendly smile and Arthur shook it hesitantly. Who was this man? A nurse? A paramedic? He seemed far too young to be a doctor anyway.

"Do you remember anything of what happened?" Merlin asked, interrupting his thoughts. Arthur frowned, tried to think.  
"We went climbing and I fell" he managed at last. Merlin nodded.  
"Yep, that's about it. Your friends brought you here and it seems you've got a concussion, your shoulder was dislocated and you have some cuts and bruises." Merlin continued to talk about medical things but Arthur found his attention slipping. Merlin's eyes were impossibly blue and his lips looked really inviting, soft and plush. Arthur found himself wondering what it would be like to kiss those lips, gently nip at them, just teasing for a bit before coaxing Merlin to open up and let him slide his tongue into that hot, wet mouth, take him into his arms and deepen the kiss before allowing his hands to…

"Arthur? Still with me?" Merlin asked, smiling at him, and Arthur felt reality come crashing back.  
"Ah yes, of course, I, certainly" Arthur blurted out, blushing furiously. What was he _doing_, fantasising about this man, this _Merlin_, as if he was a horny teenager.  
"All right, let's have a look at your shoulder then" Merlin said and suddenly his long pale fingers touched Arthur's skin as he started to remove the bandage on Arthur's shoulder. Arthur couldn't help thinking that he wouldn't mind if Merlin kept touching him. He could imagine those strong fingers caressing every inch of his skin, slowly, gently, trailing lower and lower until they slipped under the waistband of his trousers and firmly gripping his… Arthur turned crimson red and halted his thoughts abruptly.

"I don't think that's necessary, I'll just…" He squirmed and tried to get as far away from Merlin as he could but found that it was nearly impossible on the narrow bed. Merlin looked at him in confusion.  
"Arthur, what's wrong?"  
"I demand to see a real doctor" Arthur said him with all the dignity that he could muster given his current situation. Lying half-naked in front of a complete stranger made him feel vulnerable, and lying half-naked in front of someone he'd just had some very interesting fantasies about was even worse. He tried to hide his embarrassment by adopting a commanding tone of voice. Merlin still smiled, but a little less brightly now.  
"I can assure you I'm well qualified to take care of this."  
"I want a doctor, not some kid barely out of high school" Arthur said, desperate now. The friendly look in Merlin's eyes had now disappeared altogether.  
"I'm a med school student with only one year left before graduation" he said sharply. "I've taken a year off to come working here, to get some field experience and help people but because I don't have my degree yet they have to hire me as a nurse but I can still do almost everything that the other doctors can." Arthur felt himself shrink back as those piercing blue eyes glared at him.  
"I'm was also the one to take care of you when you arrived yesterday and since you seem to have survived this far I can't be doing too bad" Merlin continued coolly, still not taking his eyes off Arthur.  
"Yes, well, I…" Arthur started to say but Merlin simply raised an eyebrow at him.  
"I'm sorry" Arthur managed to say at last and immediately winced at how pathetic he sounded. Why was he the one apologizing? Seriously, who did this kid think he was? Didn't he know that he was speaking to Arthur Pendragon? _The_ _Arthur_ _Pendragon_? Luckily Merlin couldn't read his thoughts and went back to the task of cleaning the cuts on Arthur's shoulder and putting on a new bandage. When he was done he left without a word and Arthur was alone again.

Time dragged on and he was getting more and more restless. He was hungry and bored and he didn't have his phone or a laptop and he hadn't heard anything from his friends. He didn't even know where he was for goodness sake, was it too much to ask that someone told him that? What kind of a hospital was this anyway, that put their patients in a room the size of a shoebox and furnished like an office? He tried to stand up and have a look around but quickly abandoned that idea when the world started spinning wildly. He lay back on the bed and resigned himself to waiting for someone to come.

"Finally" he huffed impatiently as the door was opened and Merlin entered, carrying a plate of food.  
"Forgive me, you highness, but I had other patients to tend to as well" he said acidly and pulled up a chair beside the bed that he placed the plate on. Arthur eyed the food suspiciously.  
"What _is_ that exactly?"  
"It's a sort of porridge made from cornmeal that is very common here, and some vegetable stew" Merlin answered and Arthur fought not to roll his eyes at this. Of course it would be impossible to get a decent meal as well, he should have known that.  
"No thank you" said with barely concealed disgust. Merlin's features hardened momentarily but then he shrugged his shoulders and went to sit behind the desk.  
"Suit yourself."

He started an ancient looking laptop and pulled out a couple of files. Arthur watched him work for a couple of minutes and then decided to try some of the food, his rumbling stomach sending a clear message that he couldn't afford to be picky and it would give him something to occupy himself with. It wasn't all that bad, he realized after the first mouthful, not that he ever would tell Merlin that. As soon as he sat the empty plate back down he felt bored again. Maybe he could ask Merlin for a phone to call his friends and ask them how they were doing but that thought disappeared as Merlin suddenly got up and walked over to a cabinet with to put back some of the files. The jeans he wore were pretty tight and he needed to bend over slightly to reach something in the back of the cupboard. Arthur realized that he couldn't tear his eyes away from Merlin's ass and quickly turned to face the wall. Arthur deemed it was somewhat safe to turn around again when he heard Merlin sit back down at the desk. He took a deep breath and cursed the fact that the man in front of him was so damn attractive that it made it impossible to think. He desperately tried to come up with something to say, oh right, ask for a phone to get in contact with the others, come on brain, hold that thought, ask for phone, ask for phone,_ ask for phone_.

"Hm, Merlin?" he asked tentatively.  
"Yes?" he answered, eyes still on the files on the desk and absentmindedly biting on his pencil. Arthur could very well imagine those lips wrapped around something a bit thicker than that pencil and he wondered how Merlin would look on his knees in front of him, looking up at him and moaning and… Horrified with himself now he forced himself to quickly change subject and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.  
"Can I borrow the laptop?" He immediately knew he'd made a mistake as Merlin looked at him as if he was an alien.  
"What do you need it for?" Arthur shrugged his shoulders, tried to look relaxed.  
"Feeling a bit bored, thought I could watch a movie." Merlin looked at him as he didn't believe what he'd just heard.  
"You want to borrow the laptop to watch a movie?" he said, slowly, as if speaking to a child.  
"Yes, _Merlin_, it's a very simple request, one I would have thought that even you could understand" Arthur sneered, angry at Merlin for looking at him like he'd never seen a bigger moron in his entire life. Arthur was more used to people swooning or looking at him like he was a god, not like he was a real pain in the ass. Merlin, on the other hand, had to fight to keep his temper under control and said with all the patience he could muster.  
"It's the only one we have here and I need it for work. Read a book instead."  
"A book? Really, _Merlin_? What century are you from?" Arthur taunted him and Merlin's already thinly worn patience snapped at this.  
"Argh, you, you… obnoxious prat!" he spat out and glared daggers at Arthur while he scooped up his things and got up to leave.  
"_What_ did you just call me?" Arthur shouted outraged.  
"An obnoxious prat, are you both deaf and an asshole?" Merlin shouted in response.  
"How dare you say that to me, you don't even know me!"  
"I think I know enough!" Merlin shot back. "You're the obnoxious, spoiled prat that is unfortunately occupying my office and keeping me from working with your stupid questions and your stinking attitude!"  
With that Merlin left before Arthur could respond and the door slammed shut behind his back. The shouting had not done Arthur's headache any good and he pulled the pillow over his head with a groan, intending to get some sleep.

A couple of hours or so later Arthur woke up to the sound of heavy rain and more shouting. This time no one was shouting at him, but about him. Merlin seemed to be arguing with someone outside the room and Arthur had no trouble following the conversation.  
"… and then he told me he wanted a _real_ doctor" Merlin said outraged. "Really, Gaius, I don't know what…" Then a short murmur followed and someone else said:  
"Please Merlin, just take care of him and he'll probably be gone as soon as they can arrange something."  
"Ah yes, because _Mr Pratdragon_ is too good for this place" Merlin said sarcastically. "We even gave him a private room, _my room_ in fact. Stupid brat." Upon hearing this, Arthur could not help but interfere.  
"Oi! I can hear you, you know."  
"Good, it seems you're not completely deaf then" Merlin said as he stomped into the room, closely followed by an older man who turned out to be the head physician. He talked to Arthur for a while, asked him how he was feeling and told him a little about the field hospital, the organization that run it and a bit more specifically what they did in the area. When the man got up and left, Arthur was too occupied with processing what he'd heard that he didn't realize that he was once again alone with Merlin.

"Your friends are back at the hotel and they're fine. They called earlier when you were asleep." Merlin suddenly said and Arthur jumped. "The roads are flooded now because of the rain but you could probably leave tomorrow."  
"Right, thanks" he mumbled. "Listen, I, I'm sorry, for before and all that" he continued, and heard Merlin snort in response.  
"Well, I suppose that as good as it gets coming from you."  
"Hey, I'm trying to apologize here!" Arthur was angry, and also a little hurt, which surprised him. Why would he care what this man thought about him anyway? But somehow he did and he didn't like that Merlin seemed to think so little of him.  
"Maybe you wouldn't need to do that if you didn't behave like an arrogant asshole in the first place."  
"Now wait just a minute…" Arthur started to say but was interrupted by Merlin who had jumped out of his chair.  
"No you wait just a moment! To you this place may not look like much," he spat out, "but most people here cannot pay for food, let alone afford to see a doctor. So I'm sorry that we cannot provide you with a laptop to watch movies, as we rather spend what little money we have on medical equipment. And I'm sorry that we don't provide three course meals for idiots who don't listen to their climbing instructors and gets themselves injured."  
"I didn't…" Arthur sputtered. "How did you know?"  
"The tour guide is a friend of mine." The silence fell heavy in the room. Arthur felt uncomfortable in his own skin, he felt arrogant, spoiled and like a real _prat_? It was not a pleasant feeling at all.

"I'm sorry" he said at last, and Merlin seemed to understand that Arthur genuinely meant it this time.  
"I'm sorry too." Merlin sighed. "We work so hard to keep this place going and then you just come in here and criticize everything and…" He slumped in his chair and his voice died away. "I hoped that maybe if you saw what we do then you would support us, I mean, you're famous and all that, and can reach out to people, and then you just seemed to hate it here and…" He shrugged his shoulders, got to his feet and started to walk out of the room. He paused at the door and turned to Arthur.  
"Listen, I'll bring dinner later, yeah?"  
"Thanks." Arthur answered and Merlin smiled and left.  
"Wait, Merlin?"  
"Yes?"  
"Could you show me around later, if you have time I mean?" Arthur asked hesitantly and Merlin's smile went from sunny to radiant.  
"Sure."

By midday the next day the roads had dried up from the heavy rain and a car arrived to take Arthur to a private hospital in the capital. Leon had managed to contact his father and apparently he'd put one of his assistants on the first available flight since George was in the car beside the driver. Merlin was not there as he'd apparently had to rush to an emergency in neighbouring village early in the morning but Arthur couldn't help but look around to catch a glimpse of raven hair when he was ushered into the car by George. It didn't take long before he couldn't stand George's incessant prattling and reassurances that he'd soon be well away from "that dreadful place" and used his pain killers as an excuse to shut the man up, saying that the pills made him feel tired and pretending to fall asleep. It was not one minute later and George had already whipped out both his phone and laptop, trying to access his e-mail and cursing (quietly) when he couldn't find internet connection.

When they arrived at the hospital they were greeted by and army of efficient nurses and before he really knew what was happening, Arthur had been put in a wheelchair, whisked away to a luxurious private room and a doctor had checked his vitals. Food was ordered, his phone appeared in his hand and the remote control to the large flat screen TV had magically made its way to the bedside table, beside his laptop and a generous selection of snacks. This was heaven. Arthur sank back into the soft pillows with a comfortable sigh and closed his eyes.

He squirmed uncomfortably. He turned to lie on his side. He turned to lie on his other side. There was no lumps in his pillow. The bed was too wide. The flowers smelled too fresh. The food looked exactly like it did at home. And the nurses were too soft-spoken, too respectful and not nearly enough _Merlin-like._ His eyes snapped open again when he realized that he would gladly exchange all the luxury that now surrounded him if only he could be with Merlin again.

The night before Merlin had taken him on a tour around the camp and shown him what they did and let him speak to the other patients while he translated. The local language sounded beautiful coming from Merlin's mouth and Arthur struggled to keep up with the conversation, thinking about all the other beautiful sounds that he would like to hear from said mouth. After a while he got tired and sat down to watch Merlin play some sort of game with a couple of children, and then Merlin helped him back to his room and checked his shoulder again. Arthur remembered that it had been torture to have Merlin's hands touching his skin again after seeing him all flustered, with his hair tousled and out of breath after running around with the children. He had to keep thinking of really horrible things to keep his mind from wondering if Merlin would look the same when they had sex, all that pale skin covered in a light sheen of sweat and panting softly. He didn't succeed to distract himself but luckily Merlin didn't seem to notice that his patient suddenly had a raging hard-on.  
Just remembering what had happened yesterday made Arthur feel all hot and flustered. Damn that sexy minx of a man!

"George!" he shouted while he whipped back the covers and got out of the bed.  
"Yes, Mr Pendragon?" George appeared after a split-second, as if he'd been just outside the door guarding it, and come to think of it, he probably had.  
"Get me a car, will you?" As Arthur turned to grab his bag he saw the disapproving look in George's eyes and quickly barked out "now!" before the man had the chance to try to dissuade him.

He wouldn't let anything, least of all his father's assistant of all people, stop him.  
He had a very sexy nurse, soon-to-be-doctor, to shag.


End file.
